Wildlife Monitoring Via Camera Surveys in Cedar Breaks National Monument

The presence of wildlife in Cedar Breaks National Monument is widely undocumented. Previous data on wildlife distributions comes only from sightings along roads, trails, and lookouts which represent \u3c10% of the total park property. In order to account for wildlife species that are not currently documented, further wildlife surveys in Cedar Breaks National Monument are required. Increasing knowledge of wildlife distributions in the park will improve wildlife management decisions and wildlife interpretive materials. A pilot wildlife monitoring survey began at Cedar Breaks National Monument in the summer of 2017 to inventory medium to large mammalian species using trail camera survey methods. From these data, medium and large mammals were inventoried. Small mammals who were inadvertently surveyed in a successful manner are also included in the inventory. The pilot study provided a glimpse of the potential wildlife diversity within the monument, while also allowing for estimates of the time needed to survey all wildlife communities in the park. During this pilot study, the survey methods, timing and equipment deployment were developed to increase effectiveness of recording mammals throughout the park. This improved survey design will be applied throughout the monument in the future